Regency protesters. Medea Benjamin, founder of CODEPINK: Women for Peace, speaks with a protestor from the group Gathering of Eagles, outside The Regency House Hotel in Pompton Plains on Sunday.
Posted on 04/28/2008 6:21:20 PM PDT by Coleus
PEQUANNOCK — Protesters bearing placards deriding anti-war "hippies" and "murderers" picketed New Jersey Peace Action's annual gathering at The Regency House Hotel on Sunday, while a former U.S. State Department official and a war dissenter spoke inside. About 20 people from a coalition of groups that support the Iraq war, including Gathering of Eagles and The Band of Mothers, stood by the hotel driveway on Route 23 and shouted "victory" to passing motorists. They were there to protest the presence of Ann Wright, a Foreign Service official who quit to protest the Iraq war, and Medea Benjamin, the founder of CODEPINK: Women for Peace, at the event. "They're not supportive of our troops," said Carolyn Van Zorge, of North Bergen, the New Jersey statewide coordinator for Gathering of Eagles. "Their activities actually undermine our troops. We look at them not as a peace group but as an anti-American group." Pequannock police stood by as several protesters had a tense, though brief, exchange with the San Francisco-based Benjamin, who wore her trademark pink, and a few others. Officers urged the groups to stay away from the road but otherwise didn't intervene.
"I wanted to say hello to you and move you a bit toward dialogue," Benjamin said to Beverly Perlson, who came from the Chicago suburb of Oak Lawn, Ill., to protest the event. Perlson said her son has been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan four times. "I have a message for you Medea, get out of our country," said Perlson, who carried a sign that said "The original Medea murdered her own children, Medea Benjamin is murdering ours" – a reference to the character from Greek mythology. Madelyn Hoffman, the executive director of the Bloomfield-based peace group, said she was surprised to see the protesters at the 51st annual fund-raising event, which has featured guests such as author Noam Chomsky and former presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich. In 2003, however, two churches refused to host the event because it featured speaker Ron Kuby, a civil rights lawyer and WABC-AM radio host who is an atheist.
About 250 people attended Sunday's event, which raised between $12,000 and $20,000, said Peggy Monges of Closter, who headed the fund raising. Wright, who served in the Army for 29 years and retired a colonel, resigned from the Foreign Service on March 19, 2003, the day before the U.S. invasion of Iraq. She said the only way to achieve peace in Iraq is to withdraw the troops and contractors and work through the international community to ensure stability. She was not moved by the protest. "I'd say the people out here are a little over the top," said Wright, who lives in Honolulu. "I would just urge [them] to start to read a little more and not watch Fox News."
But Van Zorge said that, just as protests against the Vietnam War undermined the troops, CODEPINK and Wright were hurting the Iraq war effort. Benjamin, whose group claims to have over 250 chapters internationally, disagreed but was glad to see protesters at the event. The San Francisco-based activist said it's strange the confrontations between the two sides don't happen more often. "I have mixed feelings about it," she said. "I actually appreciate those people because they care [about the war] and most people in this country don't care."
yes, i have it posted in #2.... it’s too bad it wasn’t promoted more, you may have had more freepers attend.
Actually it's Victory supporters picketing defeat group.
Wright, who served in the Army for 29 years and retired a colonel, resigned from the Foreign Service on March 19, 2003, the day before the U.S. invasion of Iraq. She said the only way to achieve peace in Iraq is to withdraw the troops and contractors and work through the international community to ensure stability. She was not moved by the protest. “I’d say the people out here are a little over the top,” said Wright, who lives in Honolulu. “I would just urge [them] to start to read a little more and not watch Fox News.”
Where are the protests of the murders, starvation and rapes of black Sudanese by this wonderful group? Why hasn’t the successful international community done anything about that? The international community (UN)is gutless and panders to rogue countries!
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